Day of the Dead Art Show: fun for the living

Spooky decorations, sweet treats and scary Halloween costumes are only part of October’s atmosphere. For many, October is simply a precursor to a more meaningful holiday than Halloween: Día de los Muertos, or the Day of Dead. In honor of the holiday that remembers those have passed, the Day of the Dead Art Show opened at the Roberts Art Gallery on Oct. 30 with works inspired by Día de los Muertos. The gallery housed art made by students in Samo’s Ceramics and Advanced Placement (AP) Art classes, along with some other student work by third-graders from Grant Elementary School and art students from John Adams Middle School (JAMS).“The show just keeps expanding,” Samo Ceramics teacher Tania Fischer said. “We added a fourth altar and dancers came from the local Aztec dance group in Santa Monica to give the show a blessing.”Opening night saw the gallery packed with students, friends and family. Calaveras, or skulls, made by Samo ceramics students were on display as a nod to the traditional sugar skulls. Retablos — boards made to depict what someone is thankful for — made by Samo’s AP Art students hung on the walls on either side of the ceramics display.At either end of the gallery stood altars made by Samo’s Advanced Ceramics students, the Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC), Samo’s Unidos Club, a club for Mexican-American students, and Claudia Bautista’s AP Spanish students. Altars are made to honor the dead on Día de los Muertos.Bautista’s students dedicated their altar to the Sandy Hook Elementary School students that were murdered in honor of the first day of Día de los Muertos, which is dedicated to remembering children who have passed away.“We were thinking about dedicating the altar to the 43 students in Mexico that were murdered. At the time, their remains have not been found and we were hoping that they were not dead and would be found alive,” Bautista said. “We then decided to dedicate it to Matthew Mezza and the Sandy Hook elementary children that were murdered, as well as teachers and other members of our community that have passed away.”Students from Grant Elementary School teacher Virginia Ripley’s third grade class made papier-mâché skulls that were hung on the wall of the gallery. Across from them were collages of a skull and a woman made by JAMS teacher Jennifer Joyce’s advanced visual art students.“We basically just broke [the project] up. It’s a collage of flat canvas and then we put it all together as a layer project with acrylic paint,” Joyce said.The newest addition of the art show this year was the presence of traditional Aztec dancers, who performed a blessing for the event and for the Día de los Muertos weekend. The dancers were from a local Aztec Dance Group led by Gina Bacca. The group was introduced to the art show by Fischer’s daughter, who is a part of their program.“It was fun watching the girls dance,” AP Art student Maia Lai (’16) said. “They brought a new vibe to the show that hadn’t been there in previous years. It was a really cool addition.”Four young girls dressed in traditional clothes, holding traditional Aztec objects in their hands, danced with their teachers in a blessing to the four directions: north, south, east and west. Each direction represented one of the four elements — fire, water, earth and air. Things representing the four elements were also found on the altars: candles, glasses of water, flowers and cut pieces of paper, called papel picado, represented the elements, respectively.The Day of the Dead show is not only a place where we get to see the mixing of different types of art from a range of students, but it is also a place where student artists can take pride in their art. For some, this is the first year their art has been apart of an exhibit like this.“This year is my first year in AP Art, so seeing my art in the gallery with all the other pieces was really cool,” Charlie Kinsinger (’16) said. “Seeing all of the art in one place makes me proud to be a part of Samo’s art program.”lgraham@thesamohi.com